Is it the Larsen NMO150? If so, I've run my Larsen 2/70 NMO into the garage, into trees, into parking garages for a while now (probably 5 or 6 years) and it's been bulletproof. Remember that my VHF antenna is right in the middle of the roof of my cab and I don't give it much thought at all. It smacks into stuff all the time. After the first summer with the Comet I used before the Larsen I was fixing mechanical problems. I still have the antenna, but don't trust it not to suddenly just flop over, the 'fold-over' feature was poorly conceived on it. Nice thing about Larsen is that they don't change designs much and parts are replaceable.

I went with a comet sbb25 2M antenna. I wanted a diamond, which is what I had previously, but they were sold out in the longer length 5/8 wave versions. This comet has the fold over like you mention and is noticeably thinner, but it was also 1/2 the cost. We'll see how it works I guess. I can always upgrade later.